Across the water, the Japanese returned Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to office. At a speech in Singapore he confidently declared:

…the will to change has returned to Japan, and so has strength. The “revolving door” politics with its high turnover for which Japan is now known has disappeared and is now a thing of the past.

Prime Minister Abe also emphasised the importance of the relationship between Tokyo and ASEAN, expecially for helping to drive growth in the Japanese economy, saying “ASEAN and Japan are twin engines.” But there is a note of caution. The Economist worries that Mr Abe may use his mandate to push a nationalist political agenda, like proposed changes to Japan’s pacifist constitution, using up political bandwidth that should be devoted to economic growth.

Closer to home, ASPI’s Peter Jennings and Tobias Feakin have released a special report on the emerging agenda for cybersecurity. Dr Feakin talks here to the ABC, urging Australia to make cyber security a priority. The Financial Review has an editorial today echoing that idea. The release of this report comes ahead of the launch of ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre on Thursday.

On the subject of the future direction for Australia’s defence and security policy, Peter Jennings has an article in Policy Magazine on the challenges for Defence after this year’s election:

…the 2013 white paper is unlikely to have a long shelf life beyond the election. What should government do with Defence policy after the 2013 general election? There is no deeper need than to reset the relationship between the minister and the department.

Events

For those in Sydney after a bit of Canberra on 7 August, the Lowy Institute is hosting a debate on Australian foreign policy between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Bob Carr, and shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop.

Back in Canberra, ANU is hosting Dr John Nagl to talk about counterinsurgency lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan. The talk is called Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, and is on Tuesday August 13.